


Trample the Thorns

by SkyeBean



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alex Summers Lives, Armando Muñoz Lives, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, Movie: X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Period-Typical Homophobia, and he improves, and it's not like the main focus of the fic, but only from Scott
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27916297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyeBean/pseuds/SkyeBean
Summary: Scott Summers really doesn't know his brother all that well. He learns.This is his view on Alex Summers, over the course of Apocalypse.aka, Alex and Darwin's relationship is adorable, but little brothers with homophobic parents still have a lot to learn.
Relationships: Alex Summers & Scott Summers, Armando Muñoz/Alex Summers, Jean Grey & Scott Summers
Kudos: 49





	Trample the Thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: there's a homophobic slur (queer) used in this once. It's very much criticised when it is said, and made clear that it's not okay to say. I get that some people have reclaimed it nowadays, but in the 80s they hadn't (I don't think?)

Scott Summers was _aware_ he had a brother, but Alexander – Alex? – wasn’t a part of his life. In school, when other people were discussing siblings and turned and asked if he had any, his first reaction was always ‘no.’ A few seconds later, when he would inevitably remember Alexander and correct himself, they would all give him strange looks for forgetting his brother.

Apart from a few fuzzy memories from his toddler years, a birthday card he’d found down the back of his wardrobe that he’d never bothered to throw away, and a battered toy car, Scott had nothing of the man.

The one and only time he’d asked his mom about Alexander, she’d straightened her back and stiffly told him that they’d had him too young, and he’d turned out badly because of it.

Scott had no idea what Alex had done that was so bad, or why his parents had cut him out of their lives entirely; all he knew was that one Christmas, he’d come downstairs and his dad had told him that Alexander wouldn’t be joining them that year, or in any future years.

And that was that.

Or rather, that was that until the day Scott shot fucking _lasers_ out of his fucking _eyes_ , and destroyed half the school bathroom and knocked Mike Tristram on his ass.

Then, his mom and dad couldn’t _wait_ to hand him off to his older brother.

In fact, the first thing his mom said when she picked him up from the school office was, “We’ve called Alex.”

Scott couldn’t see a damn thing, so all he knew was the worry and fear and _anger_ threading through his mom’s voice. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

When his dad didn’t reprimand his language, Scott knew that things were serious.

His mom just continued like Scott hadn’t said anything. “He said he’ll be here tomorrow.”

“Here for _what_?” Scott hated the way his voice cracked halfway through the question. “Why’s Alex coming? What’s happening to me?” He hesitated, then asked, “Is this—do I have a m-mutation?”

The ensuing silence from his parents was excruciating, especially since Scott couldn’t see them.

“ _What_?” he demanded. On a normal day, Scott would never get away with talking to his parents like that. But…it wasn’t normal day.

It was a day where he’d shot fucking lasers from his eyes, and the bulkiest teacher, Mr Stephens, had been called to escort him to the office, and the entire school had fallen silent when he walked past them with his hands over his eyes.

There was the faint sound of fabric rustling, like his parents were shifting in their seats, and then Scott’s dad said, “Alex can explain when he gets here.” He sounded deeply, deeply uncomfortable with his own words.

“Why can’t you explain?” Scott asked, his hands clenching into the plastic of his chair.

There was no response.

Sleep was out of the question that night, with the way his mind was whirling, so all Scott could do was blindly fiddle with a toy car – he thought it was the one with ‘ALEX’ painted on the bottom with clumsy white letters, but the constant need to keep his eyes shut meant he couldn’t be sure.

His parents had been arguing in low voices for hours by the time his alarm started to ring, and Scott tried reaching for the ‘off’ button except he missed it by a foot and ended up shoving a book off his bedside table instead.

With the alarm clock still ringing loudly, Scott grasped wildly for it and, when he got it, threw it across the room. That seemed to do the trick; after a loud thump, the ringing stopped.

Downstairs, his parents paused their arguing for just a moment.

Alexander Summers – or Alex, as he’d corrected Scott – wasn’t what Scott had been expecting. Obviously, he couldn’t see if the man had tattoos or something like that, but his voice sounded nice. Not even raspy from smoking, or anything like that. From the way their parents avoided the topic like the plague, Scott had always assumed that Alex was some sort of criminal.

But, no. The first thing Alex said to Scott, after his oddly cheerful greetings, was, “So, you _do_ take after me.”

“What do you mean?” Scott asked, feeling his frown rumple the bandages wrapped around his head.

There was silence for a moment and then Alex said, “Well, I’m a mutant too.”

“I’m a _mutant_?!”

“Yeah,” Alex said, some of the earlier ease fading from his voice. “You are.”

Scott gaped at him.

“We both are.”

Scott’s dad coughed somewhat awkwardly. “We need—” he started to say, only to be cut off by Alex.

“No. You don’t need me to do anything.”

“You’re a mutant?” Scott asked, his voice coming out quietly as he tried to process this new information.

Was that—was that why their parents had cut off contact with Alex? Were they going to do the same to him? Was that what this was?

“And proud,” Alex agreed. He ignored the choked cough from their parents. “From the sound of things, we’ve got a pretty similar power. Want to show me what you can do?”

Scott immediately shook his head. “I’d destroy something. I, uh, did some damage at school. And to this kid in my class.”

Strangely enough, Alex chuckled at that. Like it was a normal thing to say. “Oh, that’s nothing. You should of seen what I did with my powers when they first came through.”

“Can we _not_?” Scott’s mom said sharply, a tone to her voice that made Scott’s mouth snap shut, biting down on his tongue to keep from uttering his response.

Alex, however, had no such qualms and just laughed again. The sound was deep and rich, like he did it a lot. “Not what, Jane?”

“You know exactly what your mother is talking about, Alex,” Scott’s dad said.

“Oh, I do,” Alex agreed. “I was wondering if you’re ‘ready’ to talk about it yet.” Even Scott, who had known this man for all of fifteen minutes, could hear the mockery in his words. “Apparently you’re not.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment, and Scott _desperately_ wished that he could see his parents’ faces; to know what they were thinking, to know what on Earth Alex was talking about.

“Anyway,” his older brother continued, “that’s not why I came.”

“Why did you come?” Scott asked, hoping he would finally get a straight answer.

Alex paused, then said, “They didn’t tell you?”

“We thought you could explain.”

“Yeah, I can,” Alex said. He sounded…bitter. Despite that, his next words were gentle. “Scott, Jane and Richard want to send you to boarding school.”

That…was not what Scott was expecting him to say.

“It’s for people like us. Mutants. I teach there, actually. It’s a great school.”

“There’s—there’s a school for muties?”

The next words out of Alex’s mouth were angrier. “That’s a slur. Don’t use it.”

“But—I like my life here,” Scott said, desperately hoping his mom and dad would speak up. Tell him that he wasn’t going to be taken away.

“Yeah, I’m sure you do,” Alex said. “Unfortunately, you can’t see without destroying things right now, and the Professor can help with that.”

“I don’t want to.”

Scott’s parents hadn’t said anything for a while, he realised then, and turned to where he thought they were standing. “Are you just going to let this happen?” he demanded, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “Let me be sent away?”

“It’s for the best, sweetie,” Scott’s mom said, her voice wobbling. “Alex can—Alex can help you. That man, he can help you. There’s nothing we can do here.”

Taken aback, Scott asked, “Dad?” but his voice sounded pathetic even to his own ears.

“I’m sorry, Scott,” his dad said firmly. “This is what’s best for you.”

And that was that.

The journey from Louisiana took them two days of driving, with only a brief stop at a motel on the way. By the time they pulled to a stop and Alex announced that they were there, few words had been exchanged between the brothers.

Scott fumbled for the door handle, then shoved it open and stepped out before slamming it behind him.

The air smelled—fresh, and the ground felt soft, like it was grass, beneath his feet. Somewhere nearby, someone laughed. It sounded like a little kid, someone who hadn’t been told that their laugh was stupid yet so didn’t care that they were braying like a horse.

Maybe they were a horse. Who knew with mutants?

“The main building’s this way,” Alex said. “Can I take your arm?”

“I’m not an invalid.”

“No, you’re just blind,” Alex countered easily, seemingly ignorant to the bite in Scott’s voice.

“It smells old in here,” Scott commented as Alex guided him down as small set of stairs. “This is the school?”

Before Alex could respond, Scott crashed into someone.

“Watch where you’re going,” a female voice snapped, then added, in a more surprised tone, “Mister Summers?”

“Hey Jean,” Alex greeted. “Sorry, my brother can’t see right now and I wasn’t watching where we were going.”

“We all thought you’d be gone for at least another week,” the girl – Jean – said.

“We planned to be,” Alex replied, “but something came up. Rest assured; I’ll be back teaching tomorrow, bright and early.”

“I’ll believe _that_ when I see it,” a new voice said, this one sounding like a man. “You’ve never been on time in your _life_.”

There was the sound of footsteps moving away, and Scott guessed that whoever Jean was had walked off.

Alex chuckled again, and it sounded so much more relaxed than the bitter laugh he’d given Scott’s parents. “Well, I’m back early.”

“Yeah, you are.” The new person sounded surprised. “Everything okay?”

“My brother here—” Alex patted Scott’s shoulder “—manifested. Parents called, so I left Mando in LA. He’ll be back in a few days.”

“Is Angel doing well?”

“Yeah.” Alex’s response sounded…content. “She is.”

“I’m glad,” the other guy said. “How did your parents handle things?”

There was a pause, as Scott tensed, and then the other guy quickly said, “Right, later.”

“Scott’s powers are pretty similar to mine,” Alex said, unsubtly changing the subject. “He only blew up a _bathroom_ , though, when they manifested.”

The other guy laughed, and the sound was _deep_ – much deeper than Scott would have expected. Maybe this guy had some freaky mutation too. “He takes after you, then.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Anyway, I figured I’d introduce him to the Professor and we can see about training him.”

“He’s teaching up in the tower.”

Alex clapped a hand on Scott’s shoulder again. “We’ll go see him now.”

After the introductions were done and Scott had torn a tree in half with his laser-eyes and the Professor – which is the only name the guy seemed to have – had told him that he’s enrolled, and the other professor – who’s not a professor? – had given him special glasses so he could finally _see_ again, Scott found himself in his older brother’s room.

There was a double bed on one side, but Alex had pointed him to the comfy-looking couch that was next to a _fancy_ fireplace.

But Scott was confused: both sides of the bed had stuff on the bedside tables, and there were two coats by the door and more than shoes than any one person could ever need, and a dozen framed photos on the mantelpiece.

“Do you live here with someone?” Scott asked when Alex moved to join him on the couch, gratefully taking the offered mug of hot chocolate.

Alex just shrugged, although he seemed to stiffen. “Yeah.”

“Oh,” Scott said.

There was quiet for a moment, and then Alex said, “Are you going to stay here?”

“Do I have a choice?” Scott countered, his voice turning bitter as he remembered his parents’ coldness at their farewell. “Mom and dad kicked you out, why would they make a different decision with me?”

Alex sighed, setting his own steaming mug of hot chocolate down on the low coffee table. Like everything else in the school, it was ridiculously ornate. “I have my own, different, problems with your parents. They didn’t like you being a mutant, no. But they won’t cut contact with you because of it.”

“What did _you_ do that was so bad, then?”

There was a moment of hesitation, and a pained look crossed Alex’s face before he said, “That’s a story for another day.”

“Ugh,” Scott groaned, rolling his eyes before he realised his brother couldn’t see the gesture with the ruby sunglasses in the way. “You sound _just_ like all the adults at home. I thought you were going to be a cool big brother.”

A smile spread on Alex’s face, some of his earlier tension melting away. “I _am_ cool. But I’m also thirty-eight years old. I’ve been a teacher here for thirteen years now.”

Scott groaned again. “God, I didn’t know you were _so old_. I thought you were, like, mid-twenties at the latest. How _young_ were mom and dad when they had you?”

“Jane was sixteen,” Alex said. Scott couldn’t read his expression. “Richard was seventeen. They had me in nineteen forty-four, seven months after their wedding.”

Shock rippled through Scott for a moment, and his mouth dropped open. “They would _kill_ me if I did that!”

“Yeah,” Alex snorted. “They probably would.”

“Why did their parents let them do that?”

Alex shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t talked to them in years.”

“Our parents, or grandparents?”

“Your grandparents,” Alex said slowly, “hold a special hatred for me in their hearts.”

“Why?” Scott asked, his face scrunching up in confusion. “I mean, I know Grandma and Grandpa are a bit old-fashioned, but they aren’t terrible people. Do they hate you for being a mutant or something?”

Alex looked like he was considering something for a moment before he answered, “I’ll tell you another time.”

“You keep on saying that,” Scott complained. He took a sip of his hot chocolate, then spat it out when it burned his tongue. “This is boiling!” Even more scalding-hot liquid spilled over the rim as he recoiled. In the blink of an eye, Alex was out of his seat and plucking the mug out of Scott’s grip to gently set down on the table.

“Shit, I forgot,” he muttered to himself. He took Scott’s hands to carefully inspect the angry red skin. Scott just sat there, shocked by his brother’s reaction time.

After a moment, he managed to pull himself together enough to faintly ask, “Forgot what?”

“I run hotter than most people,” Alex explained, and then got to his feet and gestured for Scott to follow him; they moved to the bathroom, where Alex held his burned hand under a cold tap. “Because of my powers. I forget that most people find hot things too hot.”

Scott just stared at Alex for a moment, before slowly asking, “Am I going to be like that?”

“No,” Alex answered. “You’ve burned now. Looks like your power’s just in your eyes.”

“Huh,” Scott said.

And that was that.

The next day, Scott found himself wandering across the lawn – _one_ of them, because the whole school was insane – when he spotted the girl who Professor McCoy had told him was Jean Grey.

He walked up to her. “Hey.”

“You’re the one who bumped into me the other day,” Jean said once she’d looked up from her book. “Mister Summer’s little brother.”

Scott nodded. “That’s me. I’m Scott.” He held out a hand, but Jean only glanced at it for a moment before jerking a thumb at the ground next to her. Scott took a seat.

“I’m Jean.”

“I know.”

Jean nodded. “Did he say when Darwin’s going to be back?”

Confused, Scott asked, “Who?”

“Mister Summer’s partner,” Jean said, like it was obvious. “Armando Muñoz; everyone calls him Darwin.”

“I…don’t know who that is,” Scott said, his face scrunching up. “What do you mean, his partner? Do mutants still go on missions? I thought that stopped, like, a decade ago.”

Jean looked confused too, now. “No, they’re dating.”

It took Scott a moment to process the words, but when he did, he froze. “They’re _what_?”

“Dating,” Jean repeated. “For, like, twenty years now. Everyone knows that.” She stiffened. “Unless…you didn’t know?” When Scott didn’t respond for a few seconds, Jean swore under her breath.

“Alex is…” Scott started to say, then broke off. He tried again. “Alex is _queer_?”

“Don’t use that word,” Jean hissed, her face screwing up with sudden anger. “That is an _outside_ word. You don’t—people don’t use words like that here.”

Scott scoffed, but it was more bravado than anything. Inside, his mind was whirling with this new information. “Why the fuck not?”

“People out there call us shitty names. They clearly get off on shoving people who are different to one side. Why the fuck would we _help_ them?”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

Luckily, Jean wasn’t finished. “Society rejects us as freaks – ‘muties’, if you really want to get down to it. I think that says something about their judgement. They’re rejecting us for a little difference in DNA, and they’re rejecting other people – some of whom are also mutants, by the way – for loving a certain way, and they’re rejecting even _more_ people for having skin of a certain color or speaking a certain language. Their shitty prejudices have no place here.”

“But—”

“Goodbye, Scott,” Jean said sharply, and pushed to her feet to storm off. The books and other papers she’d left on the ground flew after her, tucking themselves into her bag.

Scott was just left staring after her.

Alex wasn’t there the next day. When Scott asked, Professor McCoy said that he’d gone on a trip with the Professor.

And then there was an explosion.

Scott raced off as soon as Professor McCoy said that Alex was closest to the blast, ignoring the shouts, running for the ruins of the house.

There was nothing.

Only once they were on the plane on the way to Egypt did the naked blue lady – the one who saved the president a decade before – turn to Scott.

“Alex isn’t dead.”

Scott physically recoiled, straining against the straps of his seat as he pulled away from Mystique, trying to get a better look at her. “What?”

“Alex,” Mystique repeated. “He won’t be dead.”

Taking a shaky breath in, Scott tried to stay calm. “How won’t he be dead? He was in a really big, fucking explosion.”

“He’s survived explosions before,” Mystique said, an oddly nostalgic smile flickering on her face. “That’s part of his mutation. Plasma energy conversion. You know that plasma energy of his? His body, like, absorbs that then hurls it out. An explosion is just like some extra calories or some shit like that.”

Jean, also looking at Mystique, blinked and then turned to Scott to say, “She’s telling the truth.”

“Then…he’s alive?” Scott didn’t let himself sag with relief when Mystique nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “Probably sleepy.” She huffed a laugh, that odd nostalgia increasing as she added, “And pissed. But alive.”

“Can Scott do the same?” Kurt asked, pointing in Scott’s direction with one of his three fingers. “They have the same powers, _ja_?”

Mystique frowned at Scott for a moment and then asked him, “Do you?”

“I don’t actually know,” Scott said. “Alex seemed to think so, but he never showed me. And he doesn’t need to wear glasses or anything.”

Jean, as the only person who both knew of the Summers brothers’ powers, and wasn’t flying a plane, took that question. “Scott’s plasma energy comes out of his eyes in a beam, and he can’t control it yet. Mister Summers’ comes from his chest, and the beam is wider.”

“He wasn’t always like that,” Mystique said. “Alex used to hula hoop his way to victory.” Another half-laugh. “Sorry, that’s an inside joke.”

Jean glanced at Scott, clearly saw that he wasn’t sure what to say to that, so took pity on him. “You kind of grew up with him, right?” she asked Mystique.

“Not really,” Mystique answered. “I grew up with Charles. I met the rest of them in nineteen sixty-two, to defeat this asshole who was trying to end the world or whatever. I…after we defeated Shaw, we all kind of went our separate ways.”

“Wait, you’re _how_ old?” The silver-haired guy whose name might have been Peter looked very shocked at that. “You look like you’re about _twenty_.”

“I am…” Mystique trailed off, then her face flashed with amusement. “I am older than nylon and slinkies. I was alive for the entirety of World War Two. I—”

“You’re being dramatic,” a new voice cut in, and the teenage mutants, Scott included, all turned to look at Professor McCoy in surprise.

Mystique laughed _again_. “How would you know, you young ‘un?”

“I’m telling Charles,” Professor McCoy said, but there was a joyful edge to his voice too – one that _really_ didn’t match up to the mortal danger they were flying towards.

Scott wondered how the hell these two crazy people were the ‘experienced’ ones. Then he remembered that he could shoot lasers out of his eyes, Jean could read people’s minds, and his brother could apparently hula hoop people to death.

Maybe he was the crazy one.

It was only later, after the blue guy who both wasn’t Mystique, and wasn’t Professor McCoy, had been defeated, that Scott got to see his brother again.

Sure enough, Alex Summers was in one piece and wearing a grin on his face as he waved at the descending jet.

Behind him was a crowd of mutant students, ones Scott could just about recognise from his two days at the school, and beside him was a tall black guy with an arm wrapped around his hip.

Scott was very suddenly reminded of Jean’s revelation about Alex’s…preferences. For men.

But—he took her point. He had no idea what the fuck was going on anymore, and maybe his parents weren’t perfect if they kicked him and his brother out for their mutations, and maybe he should talk to his brother. Maybe he _needed_ to talk to his brother.

“So,” Alex said, appearing to be completely at ease.

Scott, far less at ease, echoed him. “So…”

They were sat in the kitchen of one of the farmhouses on the edge of the Professor’s land, where the currently-homeless students had been staying while the school was rebuilt.

Two days since the explosion, progress was being made, but Jean and Magneto still had a way to go. Which left Scott staying in the same house as Alex, and the man who Alex called his partner.

“I’m gay.” The words were said casually, accompanied by a sip of hot chocolate, like Alex wasn’t turning everything Scott’s mom and dad had ever told him on its head.

“I-I know,” Scott managed to stutter out, then glanced at the third and final person in the kitchen.

Armando Muñoz – Darwin, as he’d told Scott to call him – was…nothing like Scott had expected. He was easy-going, padding around the kitchen making dinner while Alex and Scott had a Conversation with a capital C.

“That’s good,” Alex said, looking calm. “Knowing that I’m gay and not immediately yelling at me is a _good_ starting place.”

Scott blinked, his brow furrowing. “What?”

“That’s how Jane and Richard reacted when I came out to them,” Alex said.

Darwin, just on the edges of Scott’s vision, raised an eyebrow at Alex, who’s mouth twitched downward and shoulder’s tensed ever so slightly.

“Yeah,” Alex said, like he was agreeing with something.

Was it something Darwin had said? But he hadn’t said anything. Unless he was a telepath? He wasn’t a telepath. Right?

The way Alex continued seemingly undaunted, and Darwin returned to whatever he was cooking, showed that the man probably wasn’t a telepath. “Mando’s right: it did not help that he’s black, and Jane and Richard are racist.”

As he moved across the kitchen to get one of the knives from the knife block, Darwin brushed a hand on Alex’s shoulder. Scott didn’t fail to notice the way Alex relaxed at the contact; he _had_ failed to notice that Alex wasn’t actually relaxed before. Or, at least, not as relaxed as he was pretending to be.

“I-Is that why they kicked you out?” Scott asked quietly, after a moment of silence.

“Well, I’d call it out a mutual kicking-out,” Alex said with a shrug. Now that Scott had seen him relaxed, he could tell that Alex really wasn’t that relaxed at all about this conversation. “When you’re twenty-seven with a job and home of your own, does it really count as being ‘kicked out’?”

“Disowned is a better word,” Darwin murmured, speaking for the first time since he'd introduced himself to Scott. His voice was…soothing. Calm.

Alex nodded in agreement. “Disowned is a better a word.” His gaze moved to Scott and he said, “They _disowned_ me because I’m gay and in a loving relationship with a black mutant.” He paused and then added, “Although they weren’t happy with me before.”

“Why?” Scott asked, but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know.

“Maximum security prison sentences aren’t given out to petty criminals,” Alex said, like that was a normal thing to confess. His next words, though, were full of guilt. “I…your manifestation could have gone a lot worse.” In that moment, Alex looked weary. “A lot worse.”

Scott wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Darwin’s macaroni and cheese was really, really good, and after a few mouthfuls, Scott told him so.

“Thanks, man,” Darwin said. “I’ve had practice, after teaching here for thirteen years.”

“You’ve—been teaching here as long as Alex?”

Scott knew he was awkward. That was a fact that he’d already accepted, at the start of this Conversation. Now, he just wanted to get through the meal so he could back to his room and stew on everything he’d learned about his mom and dad. And his brother, and brother’s partner.

When Darwin answered his question with a, “Yeah,” Alex gave his partner a _truly_ sappy smile as he reached across the table to brush their hands together.

“We were both part of the first class,” Alex said, still gazing into Darwin’s eyes like they were on of the couples in those trash romantic films Scott’s mom adored.

Maybe—maybe Alex and Darwin weren’t so weird after all.

Scott could get used to this.

**Author's Note:**

> So Darwin never died in this, he was just sick for a few days after Shaw tried to kill him. Things went slightly more smoothly in Cuba, so the Brotherhood and the X-Men get on a little better. Hence Alex and Darwin going to see Angel in California, and Raven's slightly friendlier relationship with Hank.


End file.
